Of Worshipers and Idols

Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: (Numbers 33:52)

Do you like me wonder why God did not issue video previews in His revelation? Why did He use very simple imagery when describing worship to Him?

Why did God limit the creativity of the artisans He had Himself filled with His Holy Spirit to only what He had revealed to Moses? Why would using a tool on stones to make His altar disqualify it from being so?

Why does God seem to have issues with images?

He knows how effective images are to our minds.

Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,… (Deuteronomy 4: 15, 16)

We love images. Like we say a picture is worth a thousand words. And that is where the problem lies.

We have perfected the usage of images to corrupt our worship in the name of worship.

What am I talking about?

I am talking about our videos. In using video to help in worship (whatever that means), we have diverted true worship to the idols who thought to aid our worship.

Let me give a statement consistent with most video vixens or divas (again, whatever that means).

He (or she) enjoys a cultic following.

Break that statement to a layman.

The thrust of the statement is that the person enjoys the following a cultic leader enjoys. And that is irrespective of the message they are carrying.

An idiot will be singing blasphemy yet will always be invited to perform in church because they have mentioned Jesus in their songs (maybe only once), and probably in sport.

Video is the tool the enemy uses to draw true worshippers away from true worship. And the simple reason is that we love images.

And nothing pampers that love than a video.

Have you seen how ‘progressive’ churches run their ‘worship’ as carbon copies of the ones they see on video? Now would I be wrong if I suggested that they are probably worshipping those videos or the images in them?

Have you noticed how believers will so quickly come to the defense of that video ‘worshipper’ when they get caught up in a sin, from trying to explain his motives (yet they only see them on those videos) to condemning the ones who led them to that sin?

Since when did we become defense attorneys to sinners? Yet they will on the same vein demonize the one pointing that sin out as if they know his motives.

That is the power of images. And that is why I call it idol worship irrespective of the kind of judgment you will pass on me. It will make me a qualified judge of something I know close to nothing about.

Sadly, the world knows about that power. And I know you never ask why advertisers look for these ‘worshippers’ to become the face of their products and services. You do not ask why media houses will offer them those lucrative and highly visible programs when they have little or no knowledge about running them.

You see they are idols. They are worshipped, to put it bluntly. And for mammon that is the strongest point for any product or service. Package a god in your shop and people will be falling over themselves to buy something from you.

In the past, music was appreciated for the message it carried and for musicians its instrumental excellence was added. Nowadays it is the dance. Until churches have become expert in copying those dances in their ‘worship’.

Will we pray that God opens our eyes to this openly open idolatry we are practicing especially in His name?